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applied, let them join with us in saying to the river polluters : 

 " so far you shall go, but no farther," we insist upon your 

 taking action, you, having got a remedy easily applied, and 

 just as easily deserted if from any cause it should fail 

 or a better come to light, and, by its adoption, you can 

 never be hampered with unprofitable farming land, pur- 

 chased at enormous cost. 



I thank you all for the kind attention you have given 

 me ; many of you I recognise as old stragglers in the 

 sanitary battle ; but there are some who have heard me 

 here to-day, who have, perhaps, only just placed their feet 

 on the first rung of the ladder of sanitary reform ; let them 

 push on with us, and become " the life-blood of an enter- 

 prise," not caring for particular processes, or becoming great 

 respecters of persons, but determined that where pollution 

 reigned once, no matter who is responsible, its name shall 

 be known no more ; be it pollution of that element essential 

 to the lives of animals and fishes, or that more essential to 

 the human being, A small black cloud, no larger than a 

 man's hand, is visible on the distant horizon ! If some un- 

 propitious breeze should bring it nearer, and it should burst 

 upon or near our shores ! — I will ask you this solemn 

 question. Are we prepared to meet it ? Have we no 

 skeletons in the sanitary cupboard of this country ? Have 

 we not hotbeds ready, not perhaps to give birth to, but at 

 any rate to foster and multiply the germs of that terrible 

 disease that is now striking terror and panic into many a 

 land ? 



A horrible responsibility rests on the shoulders of us all. 

 We, the public, who should cry out for those Augean stables 

 to be swept ; and the authorities in power, who should be 

 up and doing. Even, if necessary, a more powerful Act of 

 Parliament should be passed — it was procured for our 



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